Welcare Best Practice: a bridge between hospital care and homecare

Welcare Industries S.p.A. was founded in Orvieto in 2001, to develop, manufacture and distribute a wide range of Medical Devices for the hygiene and the treatment of injured skin in chronic and critical patients.

Over the years, the Company has monitored the major changes in healthcare : in fact, while in 1990 the focus of the healthcare system was on acute diseases, the 2018 data show that 80-85% of funds are invested in chronic disease treatments *. In addition, the households play now an important role in patient’s care: for example, over 36% of families in Italy have at least one elderly person who is not completely self-sufficient **.

From these two factors, the current Welcare portfolio aims to build a bridge between hospital care and homecare providing two key levels to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in patient care:

1. Ease of use for the family’s care-giver

2. "Self-care", i.e. whenever possible, the possibility for the patient to treat his own pathology.

Easy to use and proven effective Medical Devices are made available to patients discharged from hospitals and still in need to continue in their home environment the treatments for skin diseases, specifically chronic wounds, thus granting them a good quality of life.

Welcare’s portfolio has two main innovative lines:

• A range of class I and II Medical Devices, regulated by European directives, for the control of fungal infections without altering the skin pH. Mechanical therapy also allows total body cleansing and hydration of bed-ridden patients. The devices are pre-soaked with specific solutions with only pharmaceutical grade components that do not require the use of water, rinsing or drying. The devices can be used on all the body districts, even in case of inflamed, dehydrated or fragile skin, as well as on sensitive areas such as the periocular area and the mucosal membranes.

In 2001, Welcare Industries S.p.A. was the first Italian company to provide an innovative procedure for the daily hygiene of the patient, thus reducing the risk of potential infections related to improper patient hygiene, often due to the traditional use of water and soap.

• A line of class IIa and IIb Medical Devices for the treatment of chronic wounds (diabetic lesions, venous/arterial ulcers, etc.) before applying the required dressing.

It is now clinically proven that an appropriate and regular cleansing of the lesion is essential to foster the healing process and to avoid skin lesions to recur.

Continuously pursuing the philosophy of "protecting people while respecting the environment", Welcare immediately achieved remarkable successes, becoming an important reality in the field of Medical Devices first at national level and, shortly thereafter, in the international field.

Today, the Company, that is active also online with a website dedicated to online sales (oldsite.welcaremedical.com), exports to 16 different countries, both European and non, and is recognized as a partner of unquestionable value and reliability by all customers: great successes have been achieved at the most important events both at national level, as the participation in the numerous editions of the conferences promoted by AIUC, the Italian Association of Cutaneous Ulcers Onlus, and at international one, as the "Arab Health" exhibition in Dubai or the "Medica" in Dusseldorf, where the quality of the Medical Devices and the Company’s know-how met the consent of all the operators.

In the last few years, the Company has also been appreciated for its technological know-how and for the use of machinery, mainly designed by the Company itself, dedicated to the sole production of Medical Devices.

More specifically, the production takes place in the so-called "clean rooms" ISO 7 and ISO 8, environments where the air is from 10,000 to 50,000 times cleaner than the normal air and where the compliance with strict health and hygiene procedures is essential. Moreover, all the products undergo thermal disinfection or steam sterilization processes aimed at reducing the bacterial load while preserving product effectiveness.

The Company philosophy and the continued pursue of innovative procedures have led to the forthcoming opening of a new production area dedicated to biocides.

As in all successful scenarios, the winning combination lies in the talent of the management and in the continuous investment for the professional training of employees, actively involved and constantly motivated. "We are very proud of what we managed to create starting from a small Umbrian reality. We continue to invest in corporate growth at both manufacturing and organizational levels. We are always looking for qualified personnel, in particular with a good knowledge of languages ​​".

These are the words of the Company's President Franco de Bernardini that fully describe the Company vision and the key level for success identified in the potential of its employees.

Not surprisingly, the Welcare team is composed of a young and dynamic staff, with an average age of 30 years or less. They are biologists, pharmacists and workers, now specialized, who collaborate for a project they feel proud to participate in and are everyday committed to a Company that is developed by people for the people.

Welcare Industries Spa

oldsite.welcaremedical.com

info@welcaremedical.com

• *Assobiomedica, 2018

• ** Istat, 2012, Istud Foundation, report 2013